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This site is the inspiration of a former reporter/photographer for one of New England's largest daily newspapers and for various magazines. The intent is to direct readers to interesting political articles, and we urge you to visit the source sites. Any comments may be noted on site or directed to KarisChaf at gmail.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

President Obama's NCAA bracket, distributed by the White House,
and his comments to ESPN that he would buy the first lady some shoes if
he won, may have crossed strict ethics lines barring federal workers
from doing their own brackets while on duty.

Officials in several federal offices have told Secrets that they have
been ordered to stay off their work computers when drawing up their
gambling brackets for the annual March Madness basketball tournaments.

A federal memo that different agencies have rewritten to fit their workforce, this one from the Air Force, reads:

It's that time of year again, sports fans! College basketball
conference tournaments are in full swing and ‘March Madness,’ the NCAA
men's basketball tournament, starts this week.
It's time to send out that e-mail to the squadron and let them
know who the point of contact is to collect everyone's $5 entry fee,
right? Wrong. Like it or not, participating in a money-betting pool for
NCAA basketball games in the workplace on duty time violates ethics laws
and subjects employees to disciplinary action.

The memo cites “Code of Federal Regulations, Title 5, Section
735.201,” which prohibits civilian and military employees from
“participating in any gambling activity, including the operation of a
gambling device, a lottery or pool, a game for money or property, or
selling or purchasing a numbers slip or ticket while on government owned
or leased property, or while on government duty.”

The president regularly releases his bracket and this year is using
it in his administration's effort to jazz younger Americans into signing
up for Obamacare. But he stepped into the gambling area in an ESPN interview.

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